Demolition begins to replace White House East Wing with Trump’s ballroom

Workers demolish the facade of the East Wing of the White House on Monday, October 20. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to build a ballroom on the eastern side of the White House. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Demolition of the White House East Wing began Monday as President Donald Trump adds a $200 million, 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

CNN observed an excavator tearing down portions of the East Wing, and close-up video and images captured areas of the roof torn down and an excavator tearing through the interior.

Renderings released earlier by the White House showed that the ballroom, which the administration has said will be funded by Trump and other private donors, would be built over this area. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said over the summer that the “state ballroom” would occupy space housing the East Wing of the executive mansion, where first ladies have traditionally maintained offices.

The project fulfills a 15-year ambition by the president to construct an event space on the White House grounds that expands the building’s entertaining capacity — but also resembles the gilded spaces of his private clubs. The ballroom is just one part of Trump’s efforts to transform the buildings and grounds to his liking, which have included adding large flagpoles, paving over the Rose Garden, and decorating the Oval Office in gold.

“I am pleased to announce that ground has been broken on the White House grounds to build the new, big, beautiful White House Ballroom,” Trump posted on social media Monday evening. “Completely separate from the White House itself, the East Wing is being fully modernized as part of this process, and will be more beautiful than ever when it is complete!”

Trump also commented on the construction during an event celebrating LSU baseball teams in the White House’s East Room earlier Monday.

“You know, we’re building right behind us — we’re building a ballroom. They wanted a ballroom for 150 years, and I’m giving that honor to this wonderful place,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d be standing here right now, because right on the other side, you have a lot of construction going on, which you might hear periodically.”

Renderings provided by the White House depict a vast space with gold and crystal chandeliers, gilded Corinthian columns, a coffered ceiling with gold inlays, gold floor lamps and a checkered marble floor. Three walls of arched windows look out over the White House’s south grounds.

The new ballroom — which will maintain the “theme and architectural heritage” of the neoclassical executive mansion, the White House said — will have a seated capacity of 650 people, more than three times the space in the East Room, the largest event space in the White House.

At a recent dinner with high-dollar ballroom donors, Trump said the new space would be “in keeping” with the White House architecture. He said it will be “appropriate in color and in window shape.”

“There won’t be anything like it actually. … You know, a new thing is you build a super modern building next to an old-fashioned building, and I think that’s good, but I don’t have the courage to do that with the White House,” he said.

During the dinner, the president said he was told there were “zero zoning conditions” set for the project.

“I said, ‘How long will it take me?’” Trump recalled. “‘Sir, you can start tonight, you have no approvals.’ I said, ‘You gotta be kidding.’ They said, ‘Sir, this is the White House, you’re the president of the United States, you can do anything you want.’”

White House communications director Steven Cheung on Monday shared a screenshot from Smithsonian Magazine of construction at the White House during the 1950s, in response to what he called “pearl clutching” after images of the demolition surfaced.

The photo he posted was taken during the Truman administration, when the White House underwent a complete reconstruction after engineers discovered it was “structurally weak and in danger of collapse,” according to the White House Historical Association.

“Construction has always been a part of the evolution of the White House,” Cheung wrote on X. “Losers who are quick to criticize need to stop their pearl clutching and understand the building needs to be modernized. Otherwise you’re just living in the past.”

By Kit Maher, Donald Judd, CNN